THE GREAT BIRMINGHAM REVERSE!
There is always a return to the scene of the crime. A compulsion that draws you back; irrespective of whether you were the criminal or the victim. And when the motivation is megabucks and instant fame, the return is quicker.
Barely three months after the historic Amitabh–Shah Rukh shows in New York, the Khans were back in London and Birmingham en route to the U.S.A. for another month, another series. And this time around there was no threat of having to beat humble pie. No superstar Amitabh Bachchan to contend with. No Javed Jaffri and Anil Kapoor attracting the crowds in the opposite direction. Not even bad organisation to blame like the last time around when the Khans’ entourage just fell apart, leading to violent allegations and counter-allegations made by the organisers against the Khans.
This time round the Shah Rukh made sure that he had a star team to back him up. His organisers made sure there was Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan and of course Karisma Kapoor. The female battalion consisted of Juhi Chawla, Raveena Tandon and Ashwini Bhave. A star team. And of course there wasn’t Amitabh Bachchan this round to give anyone sleepless nights. No wonder Shah Rukh Khan got top billing for the three shows in the U.K. (two at Wembley and one at Birmingham). He was in for a rude shock if he thought the audience felt that way too. And it was at the Birmingham show that the bitter truth rang home.
Extremely confident of swaying the packed audience Shah Rukh came on stage and did an act that could not fail. Ironically with all that dedication, no one is sure it was an imitable Amitabh–Bachchan dialogue. It was a scene from “Deewar” where Amitabh accuses God of neglecting him. A suck-up applause career act had been left at that. But Shah Rukh had added a speech where God hits back and said a dialogue that ‘it feet’. It was that which somehow didn’t go down too well with some of the crowd who interrupted the proceedings with loud booing and heckling. In fact the crowd got far too loud for the act to continue.
According to eyewitnesses who’d been at the show it was a dialogue which went: “Aye saale…” and was attributed to God. It upset the audience immensely that ‘God’ should be talking in such lingo. They started booing and shouting and worked themselves up into quite a frenzy. Obviously they hadn’t taken too kindly to the blasphemy of this arrogant actor — they were going to give it back and give vent to their anger.
It was then that the situation was saved as the thunder stolen from right under Shah Rukh’s nose (going by the hysterical crowd reaction) by a man on his first ever show. Akshay Kumar, the hot new star on the horizon and a hot favourite with almost everyone today throughout the house when he imitated all the stars praying to God. It got the impression that he was trying to criticize God with all the actors end up asking for things from God. And God gets fed up. Maybe people felt that God does not do that. I guess some people took it seriously. I am not sure about religion but I can understand. If he had asked my parents then better they wouldn’t have liked it. On the whole I preferred Akshay even though I like Shah Rukh.”
Lakshmi (Sunlight Travels, Wembley)
“I was okay. Shah Rukh was giving a dialogue and making it a joke. I can’t remember what he was saying. It was a big joke.”
Mrs. Praveen (Gurpreet Video Intl, Birmingham)
“I think the show was okay. I don’t think the Shah Rukh part was good taste. It may be any God but you don’t make fun of them. That was the only part I didn’t like. I preferred Akshay though — he was really good.”
Raj Kumar (Sunlight Travels)
“It was a bad show. The stars were just coming on stage for two or three minutes and going back. Shah Rukh did his bit. It was fun. It was not an act on religion though. Maybe he did go over the limit as a joke.”
Mrs. Ruksana (Woodland Travels)
“The show was good. I didn’t like the Shah Rukh Khan bit. He was ringing the bell and waking the God up. Though it was a joke, I preferred Akshay anyway. Even Saif Ali in all.”
Mr. Raj Rana (Surya Jewellers)
“The show was entertaining. We were on the front seats. But at the back there was a bit of a booing when Shah Rukh Khan came on stage. Initially it was fine but after he said those dialogues there was a bit of an outbreak. I couldn’t remember it clearly but I could remember it being talked about afterwards. You see, if he was a Hindu it would be fine but since he is a Muslim it makes things worse. I’m sure he didn’t mean it but these were people who didn’t like it.”
Sukhjit (Student)
“I liked it. But I didn’t like the Shah Rukh bit. He took the piss out of the other actors. There were a couple of people who were in front of me who were making catcalls. He had no right. He was stupid. It was sad. I was sort of angry because he did a bad thing. I liked Akshay. He was good.”
There were a lot more hostile reactions which we’re not carrying because we do not want to fan any fires of communalism. Maybe Shah Rukh did it out of ignorance more than anything else. He probably didn’t mean to upset the crowd. But he managed to do just that with his act. But what upset the residents of U.K. most is that, to date, people of all communities live in peace there. They’re very careful about utterances that can spark off any reaction. And they’re afraid that Shah Rukh’s statement, however much in innocence, could do just that.
For his New York show later Shah Rukh did not recite any dialogues at all, but then the reaction he got was quite similar. He didn’t tell L.A. what he says back in India in a hurry — for whatever reason.
Hopefully he’s learned from the experience. After all it’s those very fans that make a star. Like Akshay Kumar has discovered in a much more pleasant way.
— Kevin Rego (Stardust — London Bureau)